Dancer, writer, and scientist; I am an urban girl and an outdoorswoman. A little piece of the world from where I stand.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Hide and Seek

Terrorized.

I keep listening to the talking heads and heads of state and people interviewed on the street declare that we are victorious in Boston because we did not and will not allow ourselves to be terrorized. But did we not just let the search for a single person put the entire city of Boston under house arrest? Did we not suspend all business, education, and cultural events because of that man? Did we not increase the range and enormity of the impacts of his actions by doing this? And what does this say about the future of our civil liberties? Is fear a justifiable cause for the erosion of our rights? Maybe we all need to step back and think about what terror really means and what kind of power we want to give to its perpetrators.

Merriam Webster defines terrorism in this way: "The use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims."